Artificial fuel.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT CHARLES BATH FORESTER, OF SKETTY, NEAR SWANSEA,

ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE PATENT AGGLOMENT FUEL SYNDL, GATE, LIMITED, OF SWANSEA, ENGLAND.

ARTIFICIAL FUEL.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 630,677, dated August 8, 1899 I Application filed December 28, 1897. Serial No. 664,102. (No specimens.)

T0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT CHARLES BATH FORESTER, mechanical engineelg'a subject of the Queen of Great Britain, residing at Penybryn, Sketty, near Swansea, England, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Artificial Fuel, (for which I have obtained the grant of Letters Patent in Great Britain, No. 682, dated January 10, 1896,) of which the following is a specification.

This invention is designed to produce an artificial fuel having many improvements and advantages, an especial object being to produce such fuel of the highest or of a very high calorific power from cheap and easily-procured elements, to prevent or reduce smoke during combustion,and which will, moreover, rapidly generate steam when used under steam-boilers, &c.

My present invention is as follows: First I take coal containing sufficient hydrocarbons to effect the result which I hereinafter describe or hydrocarbonaceous coal in admixture with anthracite coal or coke, breeze, or the like, and crush or otherwise reduce the same to a powder or more or less finely-divided condition suitable for my purpose. To this coal, &c., I add, according to the nature of the coal, &c., employed and the quality desired to be imparted to the fuel to be made, any of the following elements: petroleum, crude or otherwise; tar, such as coaltar; creosote 0r creosote oils; pitch, such as coaltar pitch or wood-tar pitch; naphthalene or naphthalene salts; resin or other suitable hydrocarbon either in the solid or liquid form. The coal, 850., is combined with any one or more of these elements in a powdered or other form. For instance, I may use any'of the following mixtures in or about the following proportions, by weight: (a) coal, eighty-five to ninety per cent; pitch, ten to fifteen per cent, or, (b) coal, eighty-five to ninety per cent; pitch, four to eight per cent; tar, one to five per cent., or even larger proportions of pitch and tar may be used, or, (0) coal, eighty-five per cent-.; pitch, eleven per cent. 5 naphthalene, one per cent; resin, three per cent. Lime (slaked or otherwise) may be added in any suitable proportion as desired, and when employed I find it advantageous to use only a very small proportion of lime in the fuelviz., only one to two per cent, as this very small proportion gives the best results. This mixture or compound is now introduced into a retort or pug-mill or suitable chamber wherein same is closely confined and. subjected to a suitable heat, preferably with out the injection of steam among the fuel material-for instance, by a furnace acting on the exterior of the retort. This heated retort or chamber is scaled up or capable of being sealed or kept tightly closed in any suitable manner or so arranged that either alone or acting in conjunction with the fuel material thereby escape of volatiles is prevented or practically prevented, an essential object of my present invention being to prevent or practically prevent the volatiles or volatile matters from escaping in making artificial fuel while the mass is being subjected to the heat and consequential pressure and to 0cclude said volatiles in the made fuel.

In certain cases it may be sufficient to elongate the retort either with or without reducing the diameter thereof at the entrance or exit, or both, or so design and arrange such entrance or exit, or both, and so apply the heat that a column of cold or cooler fuel material will during its passage into or out of the retort, or both, intervene between the material confined in that part of the retort (which is exposed to the heat necessary to effect the chemical combination or agglutination) and the atmosphere, the material or mixture itselfthus forming a seal, preventing the escape of the volatile matters which it is my object to preserve.

By heating the above materials or certain of them in the presence of each other in a confined space or closed chamber pressure is created, and while the escape of volatile matter is prevented special combination and agglutination results, giving many advantages.

Any suitable machinery or apparatus may be used in carrying my present invention into practice. For instance, the coal, &c., may be mixed with the other elements in any ordinary mixer, which is advantageously not under heat.

The material is now passed through the closed heating-chamber or retort according to my present invention in any continuous manner adapted for the purpose advantageously by feeding same continuously to one end of a horizontal retort or heating-chamber, along which it is forced by an Archimedean screw, and ejecting same at the other end, and on emerging from said retort said material is pressed or moldedinto the desired shape or form by any suitable machinery, such as the apparatus described in my application for United States Patent, filed May 18, 1897, Serial No. 637,060, while the escape of the volatiles is prevented, and thus said material is pressed up into the solid form in the presence of its own gases or vapors, which are consequently occluded in the fuel.

The aforesaid heated retort or chamber may advantageously be provided with a safetyvalve in the event of excessive pressure arising.

The above-described process of manufacture results in a patent fuel which is not a mere mechanical mixture of coal and agglutinatiug material,as patent fuelshitherto manufactured have been, but is a new compound in which the coal has either been fused or dissolved in or chemically combined with the added hydrocarbons and all or practically all the volatiles or volatile matters retained and pressed up into the solid fuel.

The fuel material passed through this process may be used without pressing, if desired. For instance, for cooking anthracite coal a mixture of the latter and tar may be simply passed through the closed retort and not afterward pressed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is-- The process of manufacturing artificial fuel, which consists in mixing crushed coal with a combustible agglutinating agent, heating the mixture in a closed vessel out of contact with the air or other foreign bodies and under pressure, causing the mixture continuallytopass through said heated vessel, and molding the agglomerated fuel into blocks still out of contact with the air, substantially as described.

HERBERT CHARLES M'lll FORESIER.

\Vitnesses:

\V. W. HOLMES, l. A. MoRRIs. 

